The Age of Fable eBook

Cadmus obtained in marriage Harmonia, the daughter
of Venus. The gods left Olympus to honor the
occasion with their presence, and Vulcan presented
the bride with a necklace of surpassing brilliancy,
his own workmanship. But a fatality hung over
the family of Cadmus in consequence of his killing
the serpent sacred to Mars. Semele and Ino, his
daughters, and Actaeon and Pentheus, his grandchildren,
all perished unhappily, and Cadmus and Harmonia quitted
Thebes, now grown odious to them, and emigrated to
the country of the Enchelians, who received them with
honor and made Cadmus their king. But the misfortunes
of their children still weighed upon their minds;
and one day Cadmus exclaimed, “If a serpent’s
life is so dear to the gods, I would I were myself
a serpent.” No sooner had he uttered the
words than he began to change his form. Harmonia
beheld it and prayed to the gods to let her share
his fate. Both became serpents. They live
in the woods, but mindful of their origin, they neither
avoid the presence of man nor do they ever injure
any one.

There is a tradition that Cadmus introduced into Greece
the letters of the alphabet which were invented by
the Phoenicians. This is alluded to by Byron,
where, addressing the modern Greeks, he says:

“You have the letters
Cadmus gave,
Think you he meant them
for a slave?”

Milton, describing the serpent which tempted Eve,
is reminded of the serpents of the classical stories
and says:

... “—­pleasing
was his shape,
And lovely never since
of serpent kind
Lovelier; not those
that in Illyria changed
Hermione and Cadmus,
nor the god
In Epidaurus”

For an explanation of the last allusion, see Oracle
of Aesculapius, p. 298.

THE MYRMIDONS

The Myrmidons were the soldiers of Achilles, in the
Trojan war. From them all zealous and unscrupulous
followers of a political chief are called by that
name, down to this day. But the origin of the
Myrmidons would not give one the idea of a fierce and
bloody race, but rather of a laborious and peaceful
one.

Cephalus, king of Athens, arrived in the island of
Aegina to seek assistance of his old friend and ally
Aeacus, the king, in his war with Minos, king of Crete.
Cephalus was most kindly received, and the desired
assistance readily promised. “I have people
enough,” said Aeacus, “to protect myself
and spare you such a force as you need.”
“I rejoice to see it,” replied Cephalus,
“and my wonder has been raised, I confess, to
find such a host of youths as I see around me, all
apparently of about the same age. Yet there are
many individuals whom I previously knew, that I look
for now in vain. What has become of them?”
Aeacus groaned, and replied with a voice of sadness,
“I have been intending to tell you, and will
now do so, without more delay, that you may see how
from the saddest beginning a happy result sometimes